Murim Login - Chapter 612

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 612
“Come out.”
His voice dropped low and sharp. Eyes gleaming like daggers in the darkness.
Instead of answering, I watched him calmly. After a moment of silence, a click sounded and the living room flooded with light.
Footsteps.
The man moved cautiously, then spoke again with renewed intensity.
“I know you’re hiding. Come out. Do you know who I am?”
Of course I knew. His name, his face, even his age and hometown. I hadn’t expected him to pull something like this the moment he got home.
“Fine, this is your last chance. If you don’t come out by the time I count to three, I’m calling my close younger brother. He’s an incredibly strong and successful Hunter. One. Two….”
I was curious what would happen when he reached three, but I’d already seen enough. Staying hidden any longer would just be embarrassing.
I let out a sigh and spoke.
“Don’t tell me that close younger brother you’re talking about is me?”
“…!”
“Well, looks like I guessed right.”
Jin Ho, my Elder Brother, stood frozen in shock, his eyes wide as he stared at me.
“What, what are you doing coming out from there?”
“I knew you’d call me anyway, so I came early. Happy now?”
Jin Ho fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a heavy expression.
“How much did you see?”
“From when you said ‘come out.'”
“Ah, damn it….”
“That was impressive. Your presence was so overwhelming I almost came out without meaning to.”
“Are you mocking me right now?”
“Yeah.”
At my unhesitating, confident answer, Jin Ho, who had been glaring at me, suddenly let out a soft laugh.
“You bastard. You haven’t changed one bit.”
Why did such a simple statement fill me with such warmth and gratitude? I smiled back at him and replied.
“I’m hungry. Make me some ramen.”
* * *
Sitting across from each other with a steaming pot between us, I felt like I’d traveled back about a year in time.
Of course, both Jin Ho and I had changed considerably since then.
“I’ve never seen you in formal clothes before. You always wore those shabby tracksuits.”
“Hey, shabby? That’s actually from a pretty expensive brand.”
“When did you buy it?”
“Hmm. Back in high school?”
I tried to remember how old Jin Ho was back then and nodded.
“So it wasn’t shabby—it was actually shabby. Get me some water. Actually, do you have any soju?”
“You might as well ask a meat restaurant if they have meat.”
“…Looks like you won’t live long.”
“If it weren’t for that bastard Kim Captain, I would’ve quit ages ago. That asshole barely has an age difference with me yet he keeps picking fights over every little thing.”
Jin Ho loosened his necktie roughly and downed three shots of soju in succession.
Finally, at the end of last year, he had passed the civil service exam he’d been preparing for so long.
“So you actually became a civil servant. The world really is coming to an end.”
“Listen to this punk’s manners. Did you think I wouldn’t make it?”
“No, that’s not it. I figured you’d drop dead from watching adult videos before you ever got the job.”
“…Well. That’s actually not without merit.”
The fact that he didn’t deny it meant at least a shred of conscience remained in him.
If there had been an official adult video department in the government, this man would have risen to minister and beyond.
He would have placed Sora Aoi as vice minister of such a department and Kirara Asuka as spokesperson, ruling over Pornhub itself.
But unfortunately, no such insane department existed, and Jin Ho, who had passed through the special recruitment exam, was assigned to the Hunter and Gate Management Department, which had a reputation for being the cream of the crop.
Of course, I privately suspected that my personal connection with him had earned him invisible bonus points in the selection process.
Glug, glug, glug.
Jin Ho, his soju glass brimming full, suddenly opened his mouth.
“But what brings you here?”
“Did you forget? This is my place. Though right now it’s hard to tell if it’s my house or a garbage disposal site.”
“The owner hasn’t shown his face for over two or three months, so I’m just saying.”
“Well, I came to see your face anyway. And I had something to pick up.”
“Something to pick up? If you’re talking about clothes, why don’t you just buy new ones? You’ve got money rotting away.”
“I can’t buy it even if I have money. There’s nowhere that sells it.”
“What kind of thing is that?”
Jin Ho, who had asked with a puzzled expression, soon let out a short exclamation.
“Ah. You mean that old capsule?”
“Yeah, that one. Fortunately, I didn’t throw it away.”
“You said you’d kill me if I did.”
“That’s why I’m relieved. If I’d thrown it away, I really would have killed you, phew.”
“…You’re joking, right? Please tell me you’re joking.”
The game capsule that had first guided me into Murim lay here unused and abandoned.
Thanks to the system’s permission, I could now log in and out freely without needing the capsule.
But that didn’t mean I could treat it as worthless junk.
That old capsule was the greatest contributor to who I am now, a treasure beyond measure.
“I don’t wipe down the dining table, but I clean that capsule once a week. Yet it still doesn’t work. What are you taking it for?”
“Just. Decoration, I guess.”
“Is it haunted? Remember when you lived at Hope Gosiwon and you slept in that capsule and had weird nightmares….”
Now that he mentioned it, that had happened.
At the sight of Jin Ho bringing up what happened when I first logged out, I hastily changed the subject.
“Did you see that news? There was chaos in the Middle East and Afghanistan.”
“Huh? Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
“No, did you see it?”
“Of course I saw it. Yesterday the Middle East terrorist organization and the Afghan rebel forces released a joint statement too. Said they’d refrain from terrorism and crack down on their subordinates. It’s basically a surrender declaration out of fear.”
“Don’t be relieved. It’ll only be temporary anyway.”
“Still, those five masked figures are really incredible people, aren’t they?”
Fortunately, the topic change seemed to work. I nodded inwardly with a sigh of relief.
“Yeah.”
“Well, anyway.”
Jin Ho slurped his noodles and cleansed his palate with soju before continuing.
“You’ve been through a lot. Monster waves right after New Year’s, humans worse than monsters, and now you’ve been to the Desert and Africa too.”
“What hardship? I just did what needed to be done…”
I faltered mid-sentence. Wait. What is this guy talking about?
“What did you say?”
“What do you mean what? Just what you heard. I took a shot in the dark, and it turned out about right.”
“…!”
“I mean, how many people in the world would actually do something like that? Everyone wishes all the terrorists would just die, hates the sight of those rebel bastards. But who would actually put on a mask and carry it out? And besides, they don’t even have the ability to make it happen in the first place.”
Jin Ho chuckled at my wide-eyed expression.
“Some people probably suspect it deep down but keep quiet about it. After all, there’s no evidence, and it’s not something to blame them for. It’s just that one lucky low-level Gate Administrator happens to know what kind of person that Masked Figure is, and since we even cook ramen together, I can probe like this.”
I rubbed the back of my head, which had suddenly started tingling.
I’d suspected I’d be marked as a prime suspect, but I never thought I’d get caught so absurdly easily.
“I’m really not, though?”
“Yeah. Let’s say that’s true. So when did you get back?”
“…”
Damn. It’s already over. I let out a heavy sigh and refilled my soju glass before answering.
“Four days ago. No, five days ago.”
“Good. Now you’re being cooperative.”
“Don’t go running your mouth anywhere. Classified information aside, it would put you in danger.”
Me, Choi Team Leader, and our families are always surrounded by invisible protection, but Jin Ho isn’t.
Jin Ho understood the meaning of my words perfectly and smacked his lips.
“Hmm. I feel like a big shot now.”
“Before you become a big shot, explosives might get delivered first.”
“Please. Even if they knew, they couldn’t touch me, right? Because if Jin Tae-kyung loses his temper, who knows what he’d do. Now that’s what I call Untouchable.”
Jin Ho continued with a carefree laugh.
“Anyway, how busy have you been lately that you can’t even remember when you came back?”
“Well.”
How busy have I been?
I scratched at the stubble that had grown thick on my chin and answered.
“Just training day and night. Eating with family, then training again.”
“Training? Someone at your level—why would you need training?”
“You graduated from a prestigious university but studied for nearly a decade afterward. It’s similar.”
“You’re hitting me where it hurts. And are you and I the same? It’s not just a difference in fields—we’re playing at completely different levels.”
That’s true. The prestigious university Jin Ho attended admits hundreds of students annually, and a similar number graduate.
But I still needed training.
There is no end to learning, and the word “practice” is not limited to academics alone.
‘To be precise, it’s not so much learning something new as slowly recalling what I already know.’
In that sense, the training I was undertaking was nothing more than a review.
It was both a study for myself and a study for this world.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet created a complete result.
“Ugh, look at that serious expression. I just want to slap your cheek once.”
“…Hey, I’m in the middle of something serious here. Watch your mouth.”
“Put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel?”
“Hmm. Fair point. Let’s have a drink.”
We clinked our glasses together amicably. After throwing back a shot of soju in one gulp, Jin Ho asked while poking at his now-cold noodles.
“So, how’s the training going?”
“So-so. I’ve been preparing for about a month now, so we’re slowly reaching the final stages… but it’s not easy.”
This wasn’t exaggeration on my part.
I was like a child trying to assemble a ten-thousand-piece puzzle.
In the process of checking and fitting each piece together, I felt my own shortcomings and inadequacies, and now I was fumbling through the darkness, unable to find that last remaining piece.
And I already knew the name of this darkness obscuring my vision.
‘The Demon of the Heart.’
The dark clouds clouding my mind would not disperse easily.
My concerns about the Murim and the Modern World… and yes, above all, Kim Hwa-jong’s final appearance kept coming back to me.
His voice that seemed ready to fade away at any moment. His eyes slowly closing in that snowy field drenched in blood.
Perhaps the reason I came to this place wasn’t to take the capsule, but to seek comfort.
It must have been to meet a friend living his own life in a completely different world—not my beloved family, not my colleagues—and clink glasses with him like old times.
‘Yes, that was it.’
I felt my heart suddenly lighten.
Though I hadn’t completely dispelled the Demon of the Heart, simply acknowledging and accepting all the circumstances and worries lifted a heavy weight from one corner of my mind.
Moreover, I realized that where I needed to be now wasn’t here.
“I’m leaving.”
“But the noodles are all cold. I can make some tofu kimchi as a side… Suddenly?”
“Yeah. Just remembered something I need to do. Drink alone.”
“Are you insane?”
“No, I’m the landlord. You want to start paying rent this month?”
Jin Ho, who had been wearing a menacing expression, quickly bowed at the waist.
“Please enter safely, sir.”
“Got it.”
With a slight chuckle, I headed toward the entrance, and Jin Ho’s urgent voice rang out behind me.
“Hey, hey! What about the capsule?”
“Next time. I’ll bring it next time.”
Even as I answered, I knew.
That perhaps next time too, I would give the same answer and not take the capsule. That I would only clink glasses, just like today.
“Yeah, hang in there. Man.”
Along with the small murmur of someone reaching my ear, I took my steps forward.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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